India faces high power cut risks after years of coal, hydropower neglect
India faces a high risk of nighttime power cuts this summer and in coming years, as delays in adding new coal-fired and hydropower capacity could limit the country’s ability to address surging electricity demand when solar energy is not available.
A rapid addition of solar farms has helped India avert daytime supply gaps, but a shortage of coal-fired and hydropower capacity risks exposing millions to widespread outages at night, government data and internal documents reviewed by Reuters show.
India’s power availability in “non-solar hours” this April is expected to be 1.7% lower than peak demand – a measure of the maximum electricity requirement over any given time, an internal note by the federal grid regulator reviewed by Reuters showed.
